Web analytics provide analysis on user behaviors while they browse a web site, essentially benchmarking the performance of your website. It covers a few related areas such as analysis about web traffic, web search and ads, and online marketing campaigns. Web analytic systems often provide data and reports with information about events in the listed areas. For example, web traffic analysis may include counts of page views, unique users, referrer information, and the most frequently visited paths.
Various data capture methodologies have developed. Web logs or logfiles may be used to capture data from all web servers, store the data, process the data and create reports for the end user. By default, all requests to a web server (pages, images, pdf's, etc) are logged to a file. However, significant technical expertise is required within the company to analyze and interpret the data captured, i.e., to perform logfile analysis.
Another methodology for collecting data is the use of packet sniffers, using a piece of hardware at the data center, or a piece of software that reroutes all of the traffic from the web server (before it went back to the user requesting the web page) and captures all of the information on the data that the user had requested. Essentially, the web analytics program is integrated into the web server, and collects data by sniffing the network traffic passing between the web server and the outside world.
However, concerns about the accuracy of logfile analysis in the presence of caching, the reluctance to put hardware into the data center to use packet sniffers, and also the desire to be able to perform web analytics as an outsourced service, led to yet another data collection method—the use of JavaScript, or ‘page tags’, to pass along with the image request certain information about the page and the visitor. This information can then be processed remotely by a web analytics company, and extensive statistics generated (page tagging can be performed in-house, but it is more often provided as a third-party service). The web analytics service also manages the process of assigning a cookie to the user, which can uniquely identify them during their visit and in subsequent visits.
The use of javascript tags, has developed and is currently a standard method of collecting data on the web, wherein a few lines of code sit at the end of each page. A third-party server is notified when a page is rendered by a web browser. In this case, rather than having data sent back to the company and having it stored on web server logs, the data is sent back to the vendor's servers, giving vendors more control on how the data is collected, processed, and the types of reports that could be produced.
Finally, various programs have been developed which collect data through both logfiles and page tagging. By using a hybrid method, these methods aim to produce more accurate statistics than either method on its own. However, these hybrid methods are often complex and difficult to implement.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system 100 for on-demand web analytics (a tracking system). The system 100 is only one example of a suitable web analytics system and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the features described herein.
A web server 10 provides web pages, flash, and other local applications 14 that are addressable by URLs 12. Each of these web based resources has an associated tag 16 and 18, respectively, for tracking clicks by users 20. The tags collect the user click information and transmit it over the internet 22 to a web analytics server or tracking server 24.
Web analytics server 24 collects the data received by a web server 19 with a collector component 26, and assembles queues of data in transformer components 28. The transformed data is then loaded into a database 32 by a loader 30. The data in the database is analyzed, checked, and validated over time, then provided to a user using various delivery mechanism such as a browser application, data downloads, data exports, web based API, emails, and other delivery mechanisms from a web reporter server 25 through Internet 22 to a client computer 34.
Web analytics is a relatively mature art, in both business understanding of the area, and technical realizations. However, all current solutions limit themselves to providing metrics, which are numbers such as web site page views or year over year growth of number of users. A site manager makes his or her own judgments about whether the site is doing well. Executives of web related companies often can only rely on summarized numbers to judge and explain their business.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.